Apple’s Ternus era begins as Nvidia bets on the whole AI stack

It’s officially the Ternus era at Apple.  

Tim Cook stepped down as CEO this week, handing the company to former hardware chief John Ternus, whose first memo promised a “huge launch next week” — timing that puts Apple’s next iPhone event on his desk before he’s even settled in. Cook isn’t going far, though: he’s staying on as Executive Chairman, focused on the kind of policy relationships that recently turned something as small as a map label into a very public balancing act. All of which raises an obvious question: what does the Ternus era look like, and how much rope will shareholders give him to figure it out? 
 
On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec and Sean O’Kane unpack what Ternus is walking into, why he may actually be better positioned to make progress on software than hardware in this new AI era, and more of the week’s news. 

Listen to the full episode to hear more about: 

• Why Nvidia keeps making moves that look less like a chipmaker and more like a company trying to own the entire AI stack, from its Hugging Face acquisition to its investment in MediaTek and deeper compute deals 

• A chaotic week for robotaxis: Tesla’s Cybercab event, Waymo’s expansion into new cities, Zoox’s first paid rides, and what happens when these companies start competing head-to-head 

• What Andreessen Horowitz’s new $1.1 billion “Machine Age” fund signals about where early-stage AI hardware bets are headed 

• Why the $285 million acquisition of GoPro marks the end of an era for one of Silicon Valley’s original consumer tech darlings 

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